Word: folkman
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...team, which included Medical School Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology Dr. Judah M. Folkman, found that a fragment of the protein plasminogen prevents the growth of blood vessels around secondary tumors called metastases...
Perhaps the most critical stage in the life of a tumor comes after it expands to about a million cells. At this point, it is "much smaller than a BB," says Dr. Judah Folkman of Harvard Medical School. This tiny mass -- known as a carcinoma in situ, literally cancer in place -- is malignant, but not yet dangerous. Why? Because the cells at the center of the tumor are too far from the bloodstream to obtain essential nutrients, they are less vigorous. Like a society with zero population growth, a carcinoma in situ adds about as many new cells...
...another promising target for an anticancer drug -- because the process is so rare in normal cells. Clinical trials have begun on several compounds that interfere with angiogenesis. One such compound comes from a fungus that was accidentally discovered in 1989 when it contaminated cultures of endothelial cells in Judah Folkman's Harvard laboratory, dramatically curtailing their growth. This drug, says Folkman, is aimed not at curing cancer but at prolonging the period of time colonies of tumor cellsmissed by conventional therapy remain in place without spreading. "Suppose we prolong this period of dormancy for 10 years, and then another...
Angiogenesis is directly linked to tumor growth, says Folkman, by the fact that growth is limited by a finite number of blood vessels. Until new blood vessels are formed, a tumor cannot increase dramatically in size...
...seems when you're in the field that there's very rapid progress," says Folkman. "There's a lot known, but you don't know if you know the right things...I don't think we know the key information...